David S. Abrams

Professor of Law, Business Economics, and Public Policy

Education

Ph.D. (Economics) - MIT - '06

M.S. (Physics) - Stanford - '01

A.B. (Physics) - Harvard - '98

David Abrams is one of the leading young economists working in empirical law and economics. His work covers a range of topics, tied together by goal of understanding and measuring how individuals respond to incentives in various legal contexts.
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David Abrams is one of the leading young economists working in empirical law and economics. His work covers a range of topics, tied together by goal of understanding and measuring how individuals respond to incentives in various legal contexts. Criminal justice is one of his major areas of expertise, where Abrams has investigated a variety of questions, including whether longer sentences deter crime, how defendant race impact judicial decisions, to what extent attorney skill affects case outcomes, and how much individuals value freedom.Intellectual property is Abrams’s other major area of expertise, where he has investigated the expected impact of the America Invents Act, examined the effect of patent duration on innovation, and is using natural language processing to establish more reliable measures of patent value. He has additional interests in law and health economics, labor economics, and corporate finance. His work has appeared in a number of top peer-reviewed journals and law reviews including the Stanford Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and Journal of Legal Studies.
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Professional Activities

Member: American Economic Association, American Law and Economics
Association, American Physical Society, Econometric Society

Referee: American Economic Review, American Law and Economics Review,
Economic Journal, Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Journal of Human
Resources, Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Legal Analysis, Journal of
Legal Studies, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics,
Review of Economics and Statistics, Review of Economic Studies